Neil Peart passed away. 67

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NP was my #1 influence and youthful obsession. Getting that new album and listening over and over to it, attempting to decipher the new compositions - because his drum parts were not just willly nilly limbs on autopilot, but crafted to complement the song. It's puzzling to me why only people with a bass, snare, and 1 tom "play to the song." It's all relative to the musical style IMO.

My silly Rush story: Back in '86 or 87 they were playing the Rosemont Horizon in Chicagoland. My friends and I drove from Michigan, and gained an hour. We were so early for the concert it was ridiculous. As I circled the stadium, I noticed in the parking lot there were three tour busses. We drove right up to them! There was a guy shuffling some stuff under the bus and I asked if the guys were around. "No, they are in sound check." Well, that's the closet I got - stupid fanboy moves for sure!

Oh, that and the hand written postcard I got years earlier from him after I sent a letter. I remember asking him if he could listen to a tape of me (yes, tape) and give me some pointers. I also asked him if they were going to make another album like Hemispheres. On the opposite side was the iconic picture of him playing on a raft in a lake. I can't find that postcard and it's bumming me out. I know it's somewhere in my junk...
 
Old Dog said:
I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos on Neil. It simply seems that a lot of the flack that he received was due to his shyness. He would become anxious around people that wanted to grab him and tell him how great he was. He said to Eddie Trunk in an '06 interview, "I'm just a guy, beating on things with sticks." Amazingly intelligent. I'm going to buy at least ONE of his books if not all at some point. Those that called him eccentric, simply didn't understand him, nor did they really respect him.




I'm not going to argue with you. I see what you're getting at. But maybe, that's when he REALLY LIVED? He made the decision after finding out about his brain cancer, that he didn't want to trot around the globe with his pains and sicknesses, but rather spend as much time with those he loved.

I have MUCH more respect for Neil now, after seeing actual videos of him. You know, as a human being and not some revered drum god. Seeing him on TV was like seeing a unicorn, rather rare. So catching the YT vids, quite a treat.

I'm not a die hard RUSH fan. I was disappointed in the one show I saw to a point, because they didn't do a greatest hits show. But played a TON of new music. I guess I enjoyed the show, just, not the music? You have to be a real fan to appreciate ALL of their music. I'm just not. BUT, N.Peart was a huge influence on me after I started drumming. I don't know how many hundreds of times I played Tom Sawyer, Limelight and Red Barchetta back in the 80s, trying to learn YYZ---SO laughable, I wasn't close.

With all of that said, I simply found Neil Peart inspiring. I was inspired as youngster to emulate what seemed to be the greatest drumming album ever, Moving Pictures. And recently I found his intelligence and his loyalty inspiring.
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If you want to read his books I would highly recommend ghost rider: travels on the healing road. It is a little sad being that the book was written as the result of his 1st daughter and wife dying within 10 months apart from each other but it really shows the human side of neil.
 
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"I tend to define it as grim determination," Peart told Morning Edition. "It is very physical and painful. ... The exertion level is very much of an athlete level, so when I see myself, I see a stone face. But it is that kind of immersion. I'll be looking out in between the immersion; I might pop my head out of the water for a second like an alligator, and see people in the audience reacting or holding up a sign or whatever. And that does delight me because, in a larger sense, I'm very much an audience kind of person, more than a performer."
 
bigbonzo said:
I was out shopping with my fiancé yesterday and was playing Rush "Vapor Trails" CD in the car. I couldn't hold it together any longer. I just started crying like a baby.
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Right there with you man...so sad. What's odd, over the past 3 days and the last 45 years is that every time you hear a Rush song, there's an immediate response, an inspiration. I know it won't last forever but there's a little bit of sadness attached to Rush right now, which is unusual for us fans.
 
Drm1979 said:
If you want to read his books I would highly recommend ghost rider: travels on the healing road. It is a little sad being that the book was written as the result of his 1st daughter and wife dying within 10 months apart from each other but it really shows the human side of neil.
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The man went through a lot. I remember hearing that in one of the docs I watched last year. I'll probably pick them up digitally on my Kindle.
 
I have never cried when someone famous died yet I still found myself tearing up this morning. Rush and Neil in particular were my lifeline during my teenage years. I was a total outcast at school, had a verbally abusive, alcoholic father and extremely low self esteem. I had been playing drums for several years and started listening to the Permanent Waves cassette my brother had bought. I tried playing some of the songs and just couldn't get it. Then probably a year later a friend who was a big Rush fan turned me on to their earlier stuff. Moving Pictures had just come out but that early stuff pulled me in. One day I was finally able to get those songs on the drums and I was hooked.

Neil dying has made me realize that even though my teenage years were terrible, most of my conscious memories are good ones of getting a new Rush album, listening to them over and over again and learning the parts and playing from the time I got home from school until my dad got home. I do truly believe that Neil saved my life through his lyrics and my love of his drumming.
 
thin shell said:
I have never cried when someone famous died yet I still found myself tearing up this morning. Rush and Neil in particular were my lifeline during my teenage years. I was a total outcast at school, had a verbally abusive, alcoholic father and extremely low self esteem. I had been playing drums for several years and started listening to the Permanent Waves cassette my brother had bought. I tried playing some of the songs and just couldn't get it. Then probably a year later a friend who was a big Rush fan turned me on to their earlier stuff. Moving Pictures had just come out but that early stuff pulled me in. One day I was finally able to get those songs on the drums and I was hooked.

Neil dying has made me realize that even though my teenage years were terrible, most of my conscious memories are good ones of getting a new Rush album, listening to them over and over again and learning the parts and playing from the time I got home from school until my dad got home. I do truly believe that Neil saved my life through his lyrics and my love of his drumming.
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Thanks for posting this.

My teenage years were pretty similar. My parents divorced when I was 13 and were pretty much non existent in terms of parenting. I also had an abusive, much older brother to deal with. High school would have been awful if it weren't for Rush, drums and my friends in marching band. I slept over at one of those friend's houses to watch the Exit Stage Left concert on MTV and that was it.
 
In reading other stories that listed his surviving family, I'm struck by the fact that in addition to losing his wife, Neil lost his daughter which is every parents nightmare and his parents ended up losing one of their sons as well as their daughter inlaw and their granddaughter. It is very sad.

I also can't stop thinking about Olivia. As tragic as it is for all of the grownups in Neil's life who are grieving, they at least have more of the tools and experience that we as adults have to help deal with such a loss. At 11 years old, she doesn't have all of those tools yet. That just breaks my heart. Geddy lost his father at 12. Hopefully he can help her in her struggle to work through this loss.
 
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Sometimes I wonder if people in bands really realize the effect they can have on someone's life. While I have never been a RUSH freak, I have always loved the band and thought Neal was the perfect guy for the job. I was fortunate to see RUSH three times and they never let me down. The power of music is a special thing and it's nice to hear stories of how a band or a musician helped someone get through what may have otherwise been a crappy life. Though I can't truly complain about my childhood, I just have no idea what my life would be like if I had not had music in it. Music has kept me happy and I feel blessed to have it in my life. Van Halen was MY band growing up and while guys like Neil or Edward Van Halen hear all the time how great they are, I wonder if they realize just how much of an impact the things they did changed someone else's life.

I heard of Neil's passing on the way to my gig Friday and it really bummed me out. I had RUSH on all the way home as it felt right to do so. When I was in high school and my friends and I would spend a long day skiing in the white mountains, a good dose of RUSH was exactly what we needed on the long ride home. Hearing this news makes me feel like part of my childhood died. To top it off the male singer in my Country band gave up his two year battle with cancer on Sunday and it was just the close to a really crappy weekend. I knew it was coming but it still sucked just the same. At least he is not suffering any more.
 
I am also seeing many that received postcards from Neil back in the day. When I was a young teenager in the early 80's, my drum teacher wrote something to Neil. He wrote back on one of the post cards like everyone else got and said some nice things as well as thanking my teacher for teaching. It hung on the wall where I took lessons and I remember being pretty impressed that Neil took the time to actually reply! Not many people do that.
 
Rush was one of my first concerts. Like so many Gen-X drummers, Neil Peart was one of the big reasons I picked up the sticks. R.I.P. Professor.
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wflkurt said:
I am also seeing many that received postcards from Neil back in the day. When I was a young teenager in the early 80's, my drum teacher wrote something to Neil. He wrote back on one of the post cards like everyone else got and said some nice things as well as thanking my teacher for teaching. It hung on the wall where I took lessons and I remember being pretty impressed that Neil took the time to actually reply! Not many people do that.
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Neil mentioned in something in MD that he used to answer all of his fan mail until people started posting pictures on the internet. Once the word got out that he actually answered people's letters the number of letters he received got so large he couldn't answer them all so he had to stop.
 
thin shell said:
Neil mentioned in something in MD that he used to answer all of his fan mail until people started posting pictures on the internet. Once the word got out that he actually answered people's letters the number of letters he received got so large he couldn't answer them all so he had to stop.
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That would be cool if true - but it's hard to imagine Neil answered all of his fan mail before the internet. I bet he still got over a hundred letters a week - just a guess. Still - that would be really cool, if true.
 
thin shell said:
Neil mentioned in something in MD that he used to answer all of his fan mail until people started posting pictures on the internet. Once the word got out that he actually answered people's letters the number of letters he received got so large he couldn't answer them all so he had to stop.
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I had heard the same thing.
 
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